BABSON PARK, Mass. – The Mitchell College baseball team kicked off their NCAA Tournament run by outlasting No. 21 Babson College 4-3 on Friday afternoon in the second game of the Babson Park Regional at Govoni Field.
The Mariners (33-11) advance into the winner's bracket of the four team double-elimination tournament and will face ninth-ranked Salisbury University on Saturday with first pitch set for 12:00 pm. The Beavers (30-12) will look to starve off elimination when they battle UMass-Dartmouth Saturday morning at 8:30 am. The Corsairs were defeated by the Sea Gulls 7-0 earlier Friday at Govoni Field.
Junior Chris Gibbs (New Britain, Conn.) tossed a complete game for the Mariners, scattering six hits and three runs (two earned), walking one and striking out seven.
Freshman Michael Ficocelli (North Providence, R.I.) led the Mitchell offense, finishing with three hits, including the go-ahead single in the eighth inning. Senior Robbie DelaCruz (Uncasville, Conn.) went 2-3 with two walks and scored a pair of runs, while Cole Lalli (Coventry, Conn.), Jack Hayes (New Milford, Conn.), and Michael Gajda (New Britain, Conn.) each drove in a run.
The Mariners wasted no time breaking the ice in the top of the first, as Robbie DelaCruz worked a one out walk, advanced to second on a base hit by Michael Ficocelli, and came around to score the first run of the game on an RBI single off the bat of Jack Hayes. Chas Terni Jr. was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, before Michael Gajda made it a 2-0 game in favor of the Mariners with a single into leftfield.
Babson got one back in the bottom of the second, plating a run off Chris Gibbs when senior Luca Rubin laced an RBI single to right field.
After the Mariners chased Babson starter James Clark in the top of the fourth, they pushed their third run of the day across when Cole Lalli ripped a single into left field to score Angel Galindez (Carolina PR), who had reached base when he was hit by a pitch with one out.
Back to back singles by Babson to lead off the bottom of the fifth set host Beavers up with two on and nobody out, and the base runners advanced when Tanner Santos laid down a sacrifice bunt to third base. Both Beavers then came around to score on a wild pitch which skipped to the backstop, knotting the score at 3-3.
Thai-ler Sestokas (Danbury, Conn.) led off the sixth with a bunt single and advanced to second one batter later on a wild pitch thrown by Babson reliever Jason Finkelstein. A passed ball on ball four walked Robbie DelaCruz and advanced Sestokas to third, but the Mariners stranded both, as Finkelsein stuck out Cole Lalli and got Ficocelli to fly out to right field. Mitchell threatened again with runners on the corners in the top of the seventh with two down, but again it was Finkelsein escaping trouble by getting Sestokas to line out to the second baseman.
The Mariners began their go-ahead rally with one out in the bottom of the seventh when DelaCruz singled up the middle with one away. A failed pickoff attempt moved DelaCruz to second base, and after Lalli went down on strikes, Ficocelli delivered his third hit of the day, a run scoring single to centerfield.
Brant Savage started the eighth inning with a double down the right field line for the Beavers, but was thrown out at second after Gibbs induced a groundout and caught Savage too far off the base. Gibbs then retired the next two batters to get through the frame.
Gibbs came back out for the ninth, and finished the job by retiring the Beavers in order to earn his 10th win of the season, tying Al Jordan Johnson for the individual season record in the Division III era of the program.
James Clark started for the Beavers and lasted three and one third innings, giving up three hits and three runs. Finklestein took the loss and dropped to 8-3 on the spring, allowing just one unearned run across four innings of work. Brant Savage and Luca Rubin had two hits apiece in the loss, Rubin had the lone Babson RBI, and Jack Julian singled and scored a run.